Watercolor of clothesline by Eudald Serra, d1938

Frame: 16 3/4" x 18 1/2"
Watercolor: 9 3/4" x 11 1/2"

Eudald Serra Guell
(Source: barcelona.cat) Eudald Serra, a sculptor and ethnologist, was born in 1911 in Barcelona. A renowned surrealist sculptor, he was part of the pre-war Catalan artistic avant-garde, with the ADLAN group (Friends of Art Nouveau). He studied at the Escola dArts i Oficis Llotja, where he was a student of Ángel Ferrant. In 1935, he went to Japan, where he became involved in ceramics, through Hamada Shoji, and he staged a number of exhibitions which won various awards. He lived there until 1948. His interest in other cultures began during his trip to the island of Hokkaido in 1947, in the service of the United States army, during which he modelled busts of the original inhabitants of the land, an activity which he defined as plastic anthropology and which was a constant in all of his journeys. in 1949, back in Barcelona, he came into contact with August Panyella and began his collaboration with the museum. He later met Albert Folch. They formed a close friendship.

Serra worked with the ceramicist Llorenc Artigas, he was part of the Escola dAltamira avant-garde group and he won the Sculpture Award at the Hispano-American Art Biennial in 1952. His work can be seen in various public spaces in Barcelona and in a number of museums, as well as on the façade of the Museu Etnologic de Barcelona building. Serra was also a teacher, a profession he left on becoming the curator of Albert Folchs collections.

He collaborated with the museum, taking part in various expeditions with August Panyella, and making several exploratory trips alone to prepare future expeditions, during which he acquired objects for the museum on behalf of the City Council. He made other expeditions in the company of Panyella and Albert Folch, or sometimes only with the latter. In the case of the expeditions financed by Folch, he was in charge of preparations and planning: he made the preliminary explorations, travelled beforehand to the various destinations and carried out the selection and purchasing of the objects. His interest in the objects was motivated by something other than strictly anthropological or ethnographic reasons, and always began from the perspective of plastic experience. He published various works, some with Folch. On the death of Albert Folch, he was named director of the Folch Foundation.

Good condition overall